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At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year, according to statistics compiled by NATO that show an increase in desertion. Between January and June, more than 24,000 soldiers walked off the job, more than twice as many as in the same period last year, according to the NATO statistics. In June alone, more than 5,000 soldiers deserted, nearly 3 percent of the 170,000-strong force.Some Afghan officials say the figures point to the vulnerability of a long-standing Afghan policy that prohibits punishment of deserters. The rule, issued under a decree by...

Critics on the right and the left are taking aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry's trademark job-creation funds as he steps up his campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. The funds, which dole out tax dollars to companies that launch or relocate in Texas, became controversial in the state soon after Mr. Perry persuaded the legislature to start one in 2003 and put it under his control. Mr. Perry believes the funds have contributed to job growth in Texas, which has accounted for 40% of all new jobs in the U.S. since the recession's end in 2009, said spokesman Mark...

Researchers have unearthed an ancient forearm bone from the Mabuni Hantabaru archeological site in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, believed to be from a Jomon period male roughly 169 centimeters tall -- much taller than the average for the period. The bone, measuring about 28 centimeters, is believed to be from the late Jomon period, dating back 3,000-4,000 years. The average height of males from the same period is about 158 centimeters. Takayuki Matsushita, honorary head of the Doigahama Site Anthropological Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which conducted a survey of the area, said the find was unusual. "Even on a national scale,...

VANCOUVER—Another foot has washed ashore in Vancouver, police said Tuesday.Tuesday’s discovery marks the eighth foot to be found on the B.C. coast since August 2007. Three more have washed up in nearby Washington.Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness said that a person reported finding “the remains of what appear to be a human foot and leg bones in a running shoe” on Tuesday afternoon.“The shoe was found floating in the water next to the Plaza of Nations marina in False Creek,” she said in a news release.Police and officials from the BC Coroner’s Service are investigating the discovery.“There is no indication...

In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned. The errant iPhone, which went missing in San Francisco's Mission district in late July, sparked a scramble by Apple security to recover the device over the next few days, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Last year, an iPhone 4 prototype was bought by a gadget blog that paid $5,000 in cash. This year's lost phone seems to have taken a more mundane path: it was taken from a Mexican...

Before classes began at Spring Creek School near Decker, Mont., community volunteers cut back the grass, cleared tumbleweeds and made sure there were no rattlesnakes around the playground. Last week, the one-room schoolhouse opened for its six K-5 students. "We all pitch in out here to support the school," says Loren Noll, a neighbor who showed up to dig weeds. Even though his 4-year-old daughter isn't old enough to attend, Mr. Noll volunteers as chairman of the school board. In the U.S., 237 public schools had only one teacher, according to 2009 federal data, down from 463 in 1999. Most...

Reporting from Ogallala, Neb.— On the edge of the Nebraska sand hills is Lake McConaughy, a 22-mile-long reservoir that in summer becomes a magnet for Winnebagos, fishermen and kite sailors. But officials here in Keith County, population 8,370, imagined this scene: an Al Qaeda sleeper cell hitching explosives onto a ski boat and plowing into the dam at the head of the lake. The federal Department of Homeland Security gave the county $42,000 to buy state-of-the-art dive gear, including full-face masks, underwater lights and radios, and a Zodiac boat with side-scan sonar capable of mapping wide areas of the lake...

Almost a dozen New England towns were rendered virtual islands Monday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Irene reshaped parts of Vermont and upstate New York, turning placid rivers into raging torrents and some streets into treacherous mud bogs. Hundreds of roads remained closed, dozens of bridges were gone and entire towns were cut off from assistance in the worst flooding some areas have seen in a century. A day earlier, Irene dumped up to 11 inches on parts of Vermont and more than 13 inches on some areas of New York — a deluge that quickly overwhelmed waterways,...

John Mueller and his students analyze the 33 cases of attempted [EDITED TO ADD: Islamic extremist] terrorism in the U.S. since 9/11. So few of them are actually real, and so many of them were created or otherwise facilitated by law enforcement. The death toll of all these is fourteen: thirteen at Ft. Hood and one in Little Rock. I think it's fair to add to this the 2002 incident at Los Angeles Airport where a lone gunman killed two people at the El Al ticket counter, so that's sixteen deaths in the U.S. to terrorism in the past ten...

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) continued his criticisms of FEMA claiming that the agency’s approach is “deeply flawed.” "It’s a system of bureaucratic centralized economic planning that is a policy that is deeply flawed," Paul said on Fox News Sunday. He argued that FEMA had “one of the worst reputations for a bureaucracy ever.” “I want to transition us out of this dependency,” said Paul, arguing that people needed to abandon the idea that “FEMA will take care of us and everything will be OK.” While the administration is relying on FEMA to handle the response to Hurricane...

Archaeologists searching for King Arthur's round table have found a "circular feature" beneath the historic King's Knot in Stirling. The King's Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal gardens below Stirling Castle, has been shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years. Though the Knot as it appears today dates from the 1620s, its flat-topped central mound is thought to be much older. Writers going back more than six centuries have linked the landmark to the legend of King Arthur. Archaeologists from Glasgow University, working with the Stirling Local History Society and Stirling Field and Archaeological Society, conducted the first...

Reader "Chris" is seeking advice on the state of the economy and the US housing market. Chris asks.Hello Mish, I have been reading your blog for a number of months now and I really appreciate your insights on the global economy. I have a more specific question for you in regards to housing. We are recently married, 25 years old. My wife and I both have fairly solid jobs and we have a small amount of student loan debt. We currently rent a small apartment and have slowly started looking at housing in the Saint Louis area. While we both...

A power play is underway in the foreclosure arena, according to the New York Times. On the one side is Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General, who is conducting his own investigation into the era of securitizations – the practice of chopping up assets like mortgages and converting them into saleable securities – that led up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.On the other side is the Obama administration, the banks, and all the other state attorneys general.This second camp has cooked up a deal that would allow the banks to walk away with just a seriously discounted fine...

A federal court hearing in Alabama Wednesday will determine whether or not a recent state law restricting illegal immigration has constitutional merit. Although the judge has until next week to strike down provisions of the law, critics say the legislation may drive undocumented workers to neighboring states. Proponents of the law say that illegal immigrants to the state – whose numbers have increased dramatically over the last 10 years – are taking precious jobs away from legal residents. In June, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) signed into law what is by some measures the harshest anti-immigration bill in the nation....

Some of France's wealthiest people have called on the government to tackle its deficit by raising taxes - on the rich. Sixteen executives, including Europe's richest woman, the L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, offered in an open letter to pay a "special contribution" in a spirit of "solidarity". Later the government is due to announce tighter fiscal measures as it seeks to reassure markets and curb the deficit. They are expected to include a special tax on the super-rich. Before the announcement, expected on Wednesday evening, a letter appeared on the website of the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. It was...

The New York City medical examiner’s office said on Tuesday that it had identified the remains of Ernest James, 40, a victim of the World Trade Center attack. The remains were identified “within the last few days” through DNA testing, said Ellen S. Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office. She declined to disclose more specifics about what type of remains were tested. Mr. James, who worked for the professional services company Marsh & McLennan, was one of nearly 300 members of the firm who died on Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, more than 60 consultants working with the firm that...

The Federal Reserve extended over $1 trillion to the globe's largest financial firms during 2008's financial crisis, according to new analysis from Bloomberg News. The $1.2 trillion that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pumped into companies to keep financial markets functioning is roughly equivalent to the amount American homeowners owe on delinquent or foreclosed mortgages, according to Bloomberg. The new analysis is based on data released by the Fed following Freedom of Information requests and a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg, The central bank had been reluctant to release the data, arguing that making its lending public would damage the reputation...

Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal. In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks. Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major...

Maria Strobel could not believe it of her Führer. Adolf Hitler and his party—a group of senior Nazis that included Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich—had spent more than an hour in her Munich bierkeller. Hitler had delivered a trademark speech, and, while they listened, Himmler and the others had run up a large beer bill. But the whole group had left in a hurry—leaving the tab unpaid and Strobel untippped.Georg Elser, whose attempt to kill Hitler came within moments of succeeding, commemorated on a stamp. The German phrase means "I wanted to prevent war." Image: Wikicommons Much annoyed,...

A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals. Imagine a world in which a man who is repeatedly investigated for a string of serious crimes, but never prosecuted, has his slate wiped clean every time the cops fail to make a case. No more Lifetime channel specials where the murderer is unveiled after police stumble upon past intrigues in some old file – "Hey, chief, didja know this guy had two wives die falling down the stairs?" No more...